Terrific Toyota - 1969 Toyota Corona

November '04

Feature Article from Hemmings Motor News

Cars, at their core, have always meant to be disposable objects: buy one, use it up, sell it and get a new one ... whether there is a need or not (and generally there is not). Junked five-year-old cars were not uncommon forty years ago. They seem to be the least durable of durable goods; no one trades in refrigerators and washing machines like they trade in their cars. Yet at the same time, these lesser household objects do not inspire the love affair that the automobile does. Clearly, cars are something special; why else are you reading this story, in this magazine?
It took the Japanese to stand that bizarre corollary on its head. Take, for example, the Toyota Corona-a small car that, unlike most cars and more like refrigerators and washers, inspired no great passion, but delivered faultless performance for years and years-and at a bargain price to boot. Available in a multitude of body styles-coupe, sedan, or the Estate Wagon as seen here-it was a tool, plain and simple. The annual facelift was discarded; can you tell a 1974 Celica from a 1977? Instead, the car was completely reinvented after four years, sometimes five. You could set your watch to Japanese model changeovers. The interchangeability between years helped keep costs down; versions of the Corona seen here could be had for under $2,000 in 1969. Even for 1969 money, that's pretty darn cheap.
When the first gas crisis hit, Japanese cars rocketed into the national consciousness-proof that you could have something well-built, reliable and more modern than the outgoing and very dated VW Beetle while still maintaining 25 miles per gallon or more. The styling was judged by many to be a little goofy (the deeper into the Seventies you got, the weirder the look-anyone remember the googly-eyed Subarus of the era, or the Datsun F10?), but like a building with its exoskeleton showing, the inherent function became its beauty. By the time OPEC's sequel slinked into town in 1979, Japanese cars dominated the compact and subcompact market, almost completely displacing the Europeans' stranglehold. American cars were coming on, but the Japanese had a decade-long headstart and were already entrenched. Today, Toyota has more cash reserves on hand than GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler combined-about $15 billion in the bank-and is well on its way to 15 percent of the world market share.
Where there are cars, of course, there are enthusiasts. Elderly Toyotas, removed from the modern hop-up scene of big wheels and absurd wings, are still numerous enough that clubs exist. www.toyotaclub.org the Toyota Owners and Restorers Club was started in 1995 and is a home for all Toyotas, new and old, stock or modified. Other clubs exist for specific specialist models, like the Land Cruiser and MR2, and there are a multitude of clubs throughout Europe and Africa. Google "Toyota Club" and you'll find Toyota clubs in countries you'd forgotten ever existed! Toyota Motor Corporation maintains a private museum in Torrance, California, that is filled with the most banal production models and the most insane race cars the company has produced; unfortunately, the museum is not open to the public.
If it wasn't still in constant daily use after 35 years, our feature 1969 Corona Mk II Estate Wagon featured here might be a candidate for that very museum. The little wagon is owned by Linda Lou Buchanan of Yuma, Arizona; she purchased it in 1988 from the original owners, and still drives it more than 8,000 miles per year around town. The 116-cu.in. 1.9-liter inline-four delivers exactly 90 horsepower through its one-barrel carburetor and through its floor-shifted two-speed Toyoglide automatic transmission, for an advertised 0-60 time of 16 seconds, despite a steep 3.90 gear in the rear axle. It even came with its original tool kit, still in its original bag. A new vehicle would have probably been more efficient and comfortable, but Linda Lou's husband, Ron Adams, Sr., wanted something he'd be able to work on himself in the garage should the need arise. Today it remains unrestored and still drives like new. Only radial tires and a tape deck stand out as modern additions to what is otherwise a very original Toyota.
Style-wise, the Corona is from an era where styling really wasn't very stylish; it's clean and nearly anonymous, though the slicked-back nose was a portend of things to come; the slender bumpers draw no attention to themselves. Inside may transport you back to the Seventies, but it's shocking to think that these are 35-year-old materials in here; what's more, the packaging is small but not tight or cramped; there was plenty of room for a six-foot-one wide-body like me to get comfy within. A quick drive on the streets of Yuma revealed little power but surprising smoothness out of the little four-cylinder, along with an overall solidity that, even 35 years after the date of manufacture, indicates that the maintained-not-restored machine could soldier on for another 35 years without so much as a blink or a timing miss. To date, under Linda's ownership, nothing major has gone wrong; the cylinder head was pulled for a valve job some time in the Nineties, but everything else would be considered basic maintenance.
Linda reports that she wishes it had power steering, and that she's looking for a shop manual, a windshield and a left-rear taillamp-all of which would bring those final like-new touches to her Mark II. "Body parts and trim are also impossible to find," she laments. Otherwise, Linda loves her Corona. "Whenever I get out of it, someone stops me and asks me about it. No one can believe it's a 35-year-old car."

This article originally appeared in the November, 2004 issue of Hemmings Motor News.